


From Afar, Yet So Near (To Heart)

by teacup_of_doom



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Discipline Cottage (Emelan), Epistolary, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Lightsbridge (Emelan), Slice of Life, Winding Circle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:14:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28142202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teacup_of_doom/pseuds/teacup_of_doom
Summary: Trisana Chandler chose to go to Lightsbridge University to get her academic mage's accreditation after the events of 'Will of the Empress'. Letters from her found family arrive often.Also featuring some notes written in Discipline Cottage by Dedicates Lark and Rosethorn.
Relationships: Dedicate Lark/Dedicate Rosethorn, Trisana Chandler & Daja Kisubo & Briar Moss & Sandrilene fa Toren
Comments: 5
Kudos: 61
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	From Afar, Yet So Near (To Heart)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ghostinthehouse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostinthehouse/gifts).



> For the absolutely fantastic Ghostinthehouse!
> 
> I hope you have an absolutely wonderful Yuletide, and I hope you enjoy the fic! I will admit, I just about screeched in glee (and maybe did screech in text at two of my friends while vibrating in joy) at your prompt. I have wanted to get a prompt about Tris at Lightsbridge for YEARS, and I also love Lark and Rosethorn together. (I know this is a Yuletide gift, but getting the prompt, was just as much an early Yuletide gift!) Writing for you has been an absolute pleasure and honor. I hope you enjoy the slice of life I did for this fic as much as I loved writing it. 
> 
> Happy Yuletide!

* * *

To ‘Risa Windborn”  
College of General Arts  
Lanturnus Dormitory  
The University of Lightsbridge, Karang

Dearest Tris,

I still say that my naming suggestions – yes, even Scarlet Frumpyskirts – would have made for a much funnier pseudonym than Risa Windborn. Clearly my genius is going unappreciated.

Also, you’re a whole country away and you can’t thump me for it!

The weather in Emelan is unbearably hot, it must be cooler for you up north, and I envy you that. Rosethorn says it’s something about shifting weather patterns, and that some of the weather mages at Winding Circle have noticed them changing to create higher temperatures other places too. I don’t quite get what they’re talking about part of the time – you’d know better than me – but I do care if crops don’t get watered, and so will the surrounding farmers. I’d ask if you could send some rain our way, but I know the lecture you’ll give me, so I won’t dare.

Naturally, and because it’s summer, Rosethorn has me on weeding duty in the gardens surrounding Discipline even though I no longer live here full time. Weeding is _still_ awful, but after the last few years it’s actually kind of nice to just do something so simple. I’m trying to do as much as I can so that Rosethorn doesn’t overextend herself, but I think she knows. I honestly can’t tell sometimes if she just likes weeding (which is _crazy_ , no one can _like_ weeding); or she sees it as an affront and because she wants to prove she’s not feeble (which she isn’t!), she has to outpace me! Lark can sometimes entice her back indoors with cold peppermint tea and the promise of ice chips.

She’s also back to using the old ‘I will hang you over the well’ threat. Can you believe I missed that?

Glaki says hello, and that she misses you. She wants to know if she can come visit – I think she doesn’t quite get how far away Lightsbridge is yet. Little Bear sticks to her like glue – with the exception of when Daja comes to visit. I’m pretty sure that if it wouldn’t be so unfair to Glaki, Daja would take Little Bear home occasionally.

Rosethorn and Lark are well, and send their love, as do Daja and Sandry.

How are things at Lightsbridge? Have you finally managed to find a room full of books to live in permanently? What are classes like?

I know both Rosethorn and Crane went to Lightsbridge – but Lark says that they worked together too, and that Crane says that it was almost worse than their tiffs here. Tris, you _have_ to find out some stories about Rosethorn at Lightsbridge, but please, I have to know if Rosethorn was a troublemaker. I _need_ to know.

Yours,

Briar Moss

* * *

  
To Briar Moss,  
6 Cheeseman Street  
Summersea, Emelan

  
Dear Briar,

Your naming skills are terrible. Absolutely terrible, and I have plenty of evidence to prove that. One, Sandry and Daja were laughing so hard that Daja sunk under the table and didn’t come out for _five whole minutes_. Two, you literally named yourself after the briar hedge that scarred you, and the moss patch in a prison cell. Goodness forbid you get to name a new magical technique and you call it something like ‘I told you so”.

No, that is not a suggestion. And you are absolutely correct about the lecture I would give you – or the one Niko would give you – on moving weather patterns around. It’s not a lecture that they often give mages here at Lightsbridge, I think. I could be wrong, but I’ve learned my lesson in any case.

I heard from Lark that Glaki tried to help you with the yearly, much bemoaned, weeding. I think she shares your lack of enthusiasm for it. Rosethorn always did like a challenge, and you’ve given her one! I guarantee that there won’t be a single weed left in the beds around Discipline by Midsummer! Unless Rosethorn does the unthinkable and grows some just for you to pick and slow you down – but only so that she can win, of course.

I send my love back to you, Daja, Sandry, Lark and Rosethorn. ~~I miss you all.~~ And Glaki, and Little Bear. It was odd, even after travelling to get here, not to have Little Bear at my side all the time, but it’s better that Glaki (and Daja) have him while I’m here.

No, I haven’t found a room full of books to live in – not permanently anyway. The _library_ here, Briar. It’s excellent, and I’d live there (yes, I admit it) but they have a charm on the whole building that alerts them to people trying to stay after hours and where they are. I haven’t found a way around it yet – but I _will_.

I did find out some stories about Rosethorn and Crane. We thought they didn’t get along when we first got to Winding Circle, but they really didn’t get on at first when they met here. Apparently, their shouting matches could be heard through the _entire_ academic wing when they got very heated, and apparently, she _bit_ him once. Crane had to go to a healer for stitches! She fought with some of the deans, which is a very Rosethorn thing to do. By all accounts, I’ve also heard that she once disguised herself as a gardener once a week for three months in order to prove to one of the deans that his method for raising a specific type of flower magically was flawed and actually killing it. No wonder you took Crane’s shekkan, you take after Rosethorn! Like teacher like student, I suppose.

That’s a joke. Yes, I do make them.

I have already found her thesis paper for her mage license, I’ll send you a copy. She and Crane actually cited each other’s work for their theses, so clearly either the shouting was foreplay, or their version of working well together.

Best of luck,

Tris

* * *

To Daja Kisubo,  
6 Cheeseman Street  
Summersea, Emelan

Dear Daja,

I hope you’re doing well, and that the repairs to the forge wall have been finished. I still can’t believe that idiot with the poker, and I still think you should have pressed charges regardless of the fact that you were able to weave the fire away from the wall. The whole house could have gone up in flames!

I don’t remember how long you stayed at Lightsbridge when you and Frostpine visited, but my dormitory has a beautiful view of the Oscar mountains. I wish you’d been here to show me around some of the places you mentioned when I first arrived, you would have been more interesting than the man giving official tour was. I think he thought that because we were a gaggle of new students, and because I was younger than most of them, I should have been more in awe of the fact that Lightsbridge ‘allowed’ me to enroll. It took everything I had in that moment to be ‘Risa Windborn’ and not ‘Tris Chandler’.

Only the Mage’s Council here knows who I really am, and that I’m already an accredited mage. It is daunting and kind of… pleasant. I think Niko is amused by my pretending to be someone else – he’s ‘accidentally bumped into me’ twice.

I heard that you might steal want Little Bear occasionally – our brother told me. Don’t tell him I said anything, but if it is fine with Glaki, I’m sure Little Bear would enjoy city life now and then. He is _our_ dog, after all.

All my love,

Tris.

* * *

To ‘Risa Windborn”  
College of General Arts  
Lanturnus Dormitory  
The University of Lightsbridge, Karang

  
Dear Tris,

Technically, it was an idiot customer with a lack of special awareness knocking over a half-finished poker that hit the wall, but yes, the repairs are finally finished. There’s a wood-mage who strengthened the walls this time, and made them more fire retardant. Hopefully this will squash any further incidents. And I’ve decided to stop bringing any further potential customers in there unless absolutely necessary.

We stayed at Lightsbridge for about two weeks, it was really different from Winding Circle, in a good way. I really liked the little student café in the building for agricultural mages, they had a student there who was designing a spell to make little pictures in cups of coffee. Just for fun, I think. There’s a little fountain with sculptures, I think it was on the west side? I thought it was pretty, and the ironwork was very intricate, I was told that the school’s chambers singers have an impromptu concert there every string, and they only tell everyone a half hour beforehand. If I come visit, I’d be happy to exchange notes of what your favorite things are so far! Maybe closer to the start of next year?

Lightsbridge should be glad to have you, even as “Risa Windborn”, and no matter what age. Mage learning is important, and they need to train everyone. The tour guide was obviously an idiot. May his future business ventures go sour.

Niko _would_ bump into you just for the fun of it. He must miss you, and the rest of us. You could always strike up a friendship between Risa Windborn and Niklaren Goldeneye. Or would you think that would be too suspicious?

Thank you for letting me ‘borrow’ Little Bear. I may ask Lark and Rosethorn if Glaki can come over for sleepovers at the house, so that she gets out of Discipline occasionally, and we can have some fun! It’s like having a younger sister, or just taking care of the younger children in the caravans. She’s one of us now – refugees who landed at Discipline. I want her to have as good a future as we all have had, with Trader Koma’s blessings.

Stay safe and warm,

Daja

* * *

To ‘Risa Windborn”  
College of General Arts  
Lanturnus Dormitory  
The University of Lightsbridge, Karang

  
Dear Trisana,

I hope you are doing very well in your studies at Lightsbridge. Rosethorn won’t admit it, but she’s hoping you’re having just as good a time there as she did. You did us so much credit here at Winding Circle and you will do just the same at Lightsbridge. I think Niko is thrilled that you chose to go to Lightsbridge, for all that he prefers Winding Circle’s style of mage instruction. Poor man does not take kindly to a rigid structure to his life. It may be to do with his talent in scrying, the impermanence of what is seen – you know how he wanders.

He mentioned in one of his letters that he enjoys seeing you on the campus, though he cannot really show that he knows you, by your own rules. If he slips occasionally, let him have his fun.

Glaki seems to be enjoying the summer – she tagged along with our Briar when he started coming to help Rosethorn with the gardens. I think he was pleased by that, but she soon decided that weeding was not for her, and now likes to help Comas and myself with carding wool. Comas even speaks to her a little! Perhaps all he needed to open up slightly was an inquisitive child pestering him with questions!

I’ve attached a little care package with my letter, I hope that it finds you with all of its contents, and you like the scarf. Glaki helped choose the dyes.

May Asaia Protect you, and bless your studies.

Dedicate Lark  
Discipline Cottage  
Winding Circle, Emelan  
Summersea  
  


* * *

Left on the potting bench in the shed by Discipline Cottage; half under a mended pot:

Love, I know you had a bad night last night. I’ve left you some cold tea in a pitcher on the lower shelf by the hob. It’s my blend of chamomile, lemon balm and lavender, the one I know you like. The night terrors do not bother me Rosie, if anything they make me want to wrap you up and hold you all the more. I love you, and yes, I know that was sappy.

Yes, I did mean that as a plant joke. 

Your Lark  
  


* * *

Tacked to the headboard of Lark and Rosethorn’s bed in Discipline Cottage with a red carnation*:

Your jokes are as bad as Briar’s.

Thank you.

-Rosethorn

* * *

To Sandrilene fa Toren

Duke’s Citadel

Emelan, Summersea

Dear Sandry,

How are you? I hope his Grace hasn’t been running you ragged. Or that you’re not allowing yourself to rest to make sure that _he_ isn’t running ragged.

I haven’t heard anything about the Empress retaliating for our escape from Namorn, but I know you worry. I don’t think she’ll try anything. I’d like to believe that she was put out enough by our managing to take down Ishabal’s magical barrier that she decided we were not worth the effort.

Have you visited Discipline at all recently? I hear that Rosethorn is once more threatening Briar with being hung over the well, so at least that part of our lives is back to relative normality. A thought occurred to me – Rosethorn and Lark do not celebrate their name days, but I realize that they do at least spend one day to themselves in the gardens before midsummer together, and I think it may be their anniversary, of a sort? I’ve attached a few of chime’s little creations with this letter. Chime adores the little powders I’ve been given for some experiments, and still investigates to see what’s edible. I know if will take far longer to reach you than I’d like, and it will be long after midsummer, but I was thinking that you could weave a pair of shawls for them both? With these woven in as decoration? They would be nice to keep them warm around the midwinter festivals, and you’d weave them very well. I had thought of getting them shawls from Karang, but I think something from us might be nicer.

You would like it here, I think. The library has books on patterns used by academic mages when they are imbuing cloth with symbols, or with different properties. The patterns are collected from all over the region, and some of them are dizzyingly beautiful. You may already know most of the symbols, but I’ll copy down any I don’t recognize.

Affectionately,

Tris  
  


* * *

To ‘Risa Windborn”  
College of General Arts  
Lanturnus Dormitory  
The University of Lightsbridge, Karang

Tris,

The shawls are a lovely idea! I will absolutely take the little charms that Chime created and weave them into the shawls. If it is alright with you, I have asked Daja to create some small weights for the shawl’s edges, and Briar to pick out some plants and herbs for me to weave pictures of into the main body of the shawls themselves.

I cannot promise that I am not being run ragged by Uncle. His son, you’ve seen him from afar I think; Franzen fer Toren doesn’t want anything to do with helping to lighten Uncle’s load, as if he thinks that he doesn’t have to care for Emelan beyond potentially inheriting. I am still going to help out as much as I can, as much as Uncle lets me. I think he worries that I’m doing too much as it is, bless him. Blast Franzen, now I’m going to step away momentarily before I break a pen nib. 

I haven’t been to visit Discipline in some time, and I very much miss speaking with Lark. We’ve been exchanging letters, but it really isn’t the same. She’s so calming – Rosethorn thinks so too. Not Comas, I think! I’ve never met anyone so shy! Though, I hear, has been getting on with Glaki famously. Maybe I will tell Uncle that I plan to take an afternoon off next week and go see her. He’ll be pleased that I’m taking a break!

How are your studies going? Lark said that you were preparing to write a paper on academic applications of ambient weather magics, and I cannot wait to read it, if you send me a copy. There has to be a better way to bridge both academic and ambient teachings. I don’t think ambient mages get enough credit in academic circles – or so Rosethorn tells me. You should remember to take breaks as well! I remember the nights when I could still see candlelight from under your doorframe late past the midnight hour.

Please send me copies of any interesting patterns! I do so love seeing what other regions styles are like. If there are any books that you’d like me to send from Emelan, I would be more than happy to do so. Don’t you dare complain about the cost! And don’t even think of offering to pay me back.

With love,

Sandrilene fa Toren

* * *

Note written hastily, in slightly shaky handwriting, left on the kitchen table in Discipline cottage, with a small buttercup next to it:

Lark,

The little pint-sized terror has gone with Comas to the infirmary to bring them the latest bandages.

Come to the garden?

-Rosethorn

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> *Red carnations are a symbol of admiration, deep love, and affection.


End file.
